Forbidden Fruit
by RoboAustin
Summary: Uh, bad at summaries. Rei and Hotaru in an AU. I tried to keep to character personalities as much as possible. A little Sets/Mina in there too XD
1. In Which Mars is Thwarted

Chapter 1

**If turmoil had a name, it would be Hotaru Tomoe. The resident goth of Rei's high school, this girl was hardly ever to be noticed, let alone involved. Rei was queen bee and the most respected student -- albeit silently.**

**Someone like Tomoe never even crossed her mind -- until today. Raven locks askew on her desk, Rei groaned inwardly. Then why exactly did the girl keep running through her mind? Usually, the miko would hardly even notice someone as reserved and seemingly unimportant as Tomoe. But not today.**

**---------Flashback---------**

**Rei drummed her pencil, bored to death. She had long forgotten why she had taken this English Literature class. She stared blankly at nothing in particular with her chin resting on her hand. **

**"Rei?" The raven-haired student snapped back into reality when the teacher called her name.**

**"Yes, ma'am?" She asked flatly. The teacher sighed. **

**"You really need to pay a little more attention, Ms. Hino. Your midterms are coming up." Her educator scolded, and then continued. "I said, 'At whose estate did Fitzwilliam Darcy deliver his love letter to Elizabeth?'"**

**"The short guy. The cousin or something. The one who married the sister. Uh, I don't recall his n--" Someone to Rei's right shifted and the teacher averted her gaze.**

**"Yes, Ms. Tomoe?"**

**"Mr. Collins. Married to Charlotte. It was their estate at which the letter was delivered." The person said matter-of-factly.**

"**Yes. That's right, Hotaru. Now, someone tell me…" The teacher continued to speak as Rei looked to her right, catching sight of a very smug, but somehow indifferent Hotaru Tomoe. No one had ever been so bold as to interrupt Rei Hino before, much less correct her in the process. Rei inspected the girl. Jet-black hair fell just to her black-clad shoulders. She was looking ahead, listening to the lecture, not even paying Rei the slightest of heed. Hotaru held the raven-haired senshi's attention, without her knowledge, for the rest of the class.**

**Even after class, Rei was still shocked. Someone had **_**dared **_**do something like that to her in the middle of class? She would not have thought that could happen in a million years, much less by Hotaru Tomoe. The girl was usually so quiet and reserved. Not to mention, Rei was the most popular girl in school, whereas Hotaru was most likely the least popular. Ms. Queen Bee made a fool by Gothika herself.**

**Rei and her three closest friends, Minako, Ami, and Makoto, walked into the lunchroom with a very sophisticated air about them. However, none rivaled that of Haruka and Michiru -- the cutest, most successful, and incredibly nonchalant couple that ever did live. Even the inners had to admit that the two musicians were exactly what everyone wanted to be. **

**They all met at their usual table against the wall farthest from the entrance. As much as they tried not to, the group always held the attention of everyone who walked into the room. They tried to keep themselves as overlooked as possible, but being the best-looking people at the school, that was always difficult. **

**"I wish they would gawk elsewhere." Haruka sighed. The tall blonde hated being watched all day as if she were a very interesting movie.**

**"We all know you like the attention, love." said Michiru proudly.**

**"Yeah, but she doesn't like **_**you getting the same attention. You could just walk past the football team and have them all on their knees." Minako observed matter-of-factly. **_

_**Haruka shot her a glare, causing Minako to giggle innocently and change the subject to a date she apparently had on Saturday. She had been dating some mystery person for a few weeks now, but refused to allow her friends to meet them. She said they would meet when the time was right, which apparently, it was not. **_

_**As Mina gushed, Makoto said just loud enough for the others to hear, "Have you noticed how distant Rei is being?" Everyone immediately looked toward the miko with interest. She had indeed been quite reserved since hour three. She was spaced out with an empty gaze directed toward the lunchroom's entrance as she hugged her knees to her chest, leaning back against her chair. **_

_**"Rei?" Ami moved her hand in front of Rei's face, trying to catch her attention. Abruptly, Rei's body hardened, along with her expression. Her eyes widened in what seemed to be anger and/or interest. Everyone tried to see what exactly their friend had, but saw absolutely nothing of interest -- everyone except Michiru, who noticed exactly what had affected Rei. She smirked with wisdom as everyone else strained to understand Rei's issue.**_

_**The fire senshi pulled herself from her reverie, noticing four questioning gazes and one of intrigue and amusement fall upon her. She shrugged and pulled out her iPod, her music a happy escape from reality. The rest of the gang left her alone, seeing that it was probably just an off day for Rei and that it would most likely be better not to cross her. As nosy as they all were, they were also understanding. **_

_**---------End Flashback---------**_

_**Sighing for what seemed the millionth time in the past few hours, Rei heard her cell ring a familiar, soft violin solo. She flipped it open and spoke. "Yes, Michi?"**_

_**"Are you still pining after forbidden fruit?" came an amused voice from the other end.**_

_**Rei almost exclaimed, "What on Earth do you mean by that?" **_

_**"Hotaru Tomoe." Michiru stated blatantly.**_

_**"Still at a loss here."**_

_**"I saw how you were acting at lunch. Everyone did. But it was I who discovered why."**_

_**Sarcasm ever-present, Rei sighed. "I'm befuddled as to what you mean, guru."**_

_**"Oh, stop that. You know exactly what I mean. She irks you for some reason. You like her, don't you?"**_

_**"No, she just annoys me. Especially today."**_

_**Giggles and scolding ensued in the background and Rei rolled her eyes. "Let's meet for lunch tomorrow. I have a very needy Ruka-koi to attend to right now."**_

_**"Eew. Okay, how about eleven?"**_

_**"Sounds good."**_

_**Rei closed her phone and groaned at the thought of having to explain herself to the all-knowing Michiru tomorrow. It would be nothing but prying and intuitive feedback. Why did she always have to know everything? **_


	2. In Which Neptune is Right

After 24 hours of dreading her and Michi's lunch, Rei grabbed her house keys and began her walk to the familiar café. As she walked, the miko realized how much she liked the city of Tokyo. Although most were always running late or hurrying to get somewhere, Rei preferred to take her time and savor her surroundings. She ambled down the busy street on a path well memorized.

When the café came into view, the fire senshi saw Michiru wave at her from a window closest to the back, incredibly excited. Rei smiled and continued in. She opened the café door and started her way toward her usual booth at the back. Not paying attention, she stumbled into someone and inadvertently knocked them down.

"Ugh, walk much?" came an annoyed voice that Rei recognized all too quickly. She opened her mouth to retort angrily when she looked down on Hotaru Tomoe covered in what appeared to be iced tea. Rei stuttered an apology and she fumbled to help the girl up. As she grabbed the younger girl's hand to help her up, the younger student's eyes widened momentarily before hardening once again.

"Gomen!" Rei stammered hastily as the girl dabbed at her soiled shirt with a napkin from an adjacent table. "I wasn't paying attention. Let me buy you another drink."

"Obviously," the younger girl spat. "No thank you, and if you don't mind, I would like to return to my table." The miko quickly muttered another apology as she moved from her path. Rei watched Hotaru return to her seat next to a pink-haired girl who immediately started speaking quickly in a hushed voice.

She cursed herself for being such a babbling idiot as she made her way to her booth. She heard a chuckle as she sat down and hit her head against the table. "You just can't seem to do anything right, can you?" Michiru joked.

"No, I can't! I don't know what it is about her that just makes me a complete moron!" Rei hung her head in mock defeat.

"Usually, you are quite calm, collected, and charming. It seems you've met your match, my dear." the blue-haired nymph discerned.

Rei groaned as a blonde, and quite attractive, waitress approached. "The usual, ladies?" The two students nodded. "One chai and one black Columbian coming right up." The waitress winked at Michiru and smiled before she turned on her heel to retrieve the drinks.

Michiru sighed, and rolled her eyes. "Now you understand why I can't bring Haruka here." At this, Rei laughed quietly. "So how do you plan on wooing Tomoe?"

Rei choked and coughed before looking at the older girl confoundedly. "Who said I wanted to woo her?"

Michiru raised an eyebrow knowingly before abruptly speaking quite a bit louder, "So then I told Haruka 'Twice is certainly enough before lunch!'" Rei gave her a puzzled look and then saw the waitress had returned and put their drinks down on the table angrily, causing Rei's coffee to spill slightly onto the saucer on which it was positioned.

"Is that all?" she said irately. The two nodded and she stormed away from the table.

"Way to let her down easy, Michi." Rei joked. Michiru looked at her expectantly, causing Rei to look down and become very interested in her coffee. "It's nothing like that. I just didn't expect her to act so nonchalantly around me; most people get nervous and shy. She just acts like I'm any other person in the world. It's incredibly bothersome."

"You are just like any other person to her, dear. You can't expect everyone to fall head over heels when they meet you. She is the type of girl you have to get to know. Show her your romantic side. Flirt a little bit."

Rei sighed. "Usually, it's so easy! I haven't had to flirt in years. I don't even know if I remember how. Especially with her!" She exhaled heavily and looked at the older student with pleading eyes. "You have to help me, Michi."

The water senshi tilted her head upward and twirled her hair, considering the younger girl's request. "Fine, but you have to let me say one thing."

"Whatever you want."

"I told you so."

Rei groaned and shook her head. "Can we get out of here?" She motioned to the table a few rows behind her. Michiru got the message and the two finished their drinks and paid. As they left, Michiru saw Hotaru send Rei an interested glance before quickly returning to her friend, something Rei missed entirely. She smirked and led the fire senshi out of the café.

"Can I come out now?" Minako said in a whisper.

"Yes, love. They are gone." Setsuna chuckled.

The blonde put down the menu she had been holding over her face since she spotted Michiru enter her 'secret' meeting place. "Phew! I thought they would never leave. Now we can finally get to our date!" she added.

"Mina, honey, are you sure we should be going out to public places like this? You could lose your senior year and I could lose my job." Setsuna inquired while sipping her tea.

"Honestly, I don't like to think about what _could happen. I want to focus on right now. I know I can tell my friends because they would all be okay with it." The love senshi took the hand of her green-haired girlfriend compassionately. "But if you would rather not risk it, I would totally understand." she added sadly._

_Setsuna's expression turned quickly to one of indignation. "I will not have you think that way! You know I love you and would risk anything for you." She placed her hand on Minako's cheek and softened. "Let's just enjoy our tea and then go back to my place." The time senshi winked._

_This statement caused Mina to gulp down the rest of her drink and call for the check in all of six seconds. In another minute, the blonde was scurrying out the door with the older woman trailing behind her calmly, rolling her eyes at her younger partner's antics._

_Rei and Michiru walked to a small park and sat beneath a large oak tree. Rei felt the soft grass beneath them and let out a long sigh. Michiru lowered herself next to the miko gracefully and leaned back against the tree. For a moment, they both pondered Rei's predicament. Finally, Michiru spoke._

_"I've never seen you so confused, Rei." She stated, concerned at her friend's serious mood._

_"I've never had this much of a problem over someone so…" Rei furrowed her brow as she struggled to find the right word._

_"Cute, mysterious, magnetic, etc.?" Michiru chimed._

_"Annoying," Rei concluded. _

_They sat under the tree in silent understanding. Rei needed to think, and Michiru knew that. Something Rei adored about her. She knew how to leave well enough alone. The raven-haired student sighed and let her head fall on the sea nymph's shoulder as she spoke. "Thanks. I needed this." Michiru nodded and began to gently comb through Rei's hair soothingly._

_"Oh, I don't mean to spring this on you at the last minute, but Ruka wanted to know if you would attend a sponsor party with her tomorrow. I can't deal with so many men in one place anymore." Michiru rolled her eyes._

_Rei thought about it. A day away from all of 'this'. Sounded great. "Yeah, I can. It would be a welcome escape." The miko's thoughts wandered to the upcoming party and her friend's to nothing but shoes. They both sighed with satisfaction. _


	3. In Which Saturn Befriends

Rei entered her apartment and threw herself onto her couch. Sixteen stores, thirty-two shopping bags, and thousands of dollars later, Michiru found it was finally time to part. So much for her first 'lesson'.

"I know what will make you feel better!" the aqua-haired woman exclaimed and Rei raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "Shoe shopping!" Rei rolled her eyes and sighed.

The water senshi all but ran to the nearest department store with Rei reluctantly following. When she entered, a man greeted the store's patron as she scoured the shelves top to bottom for a pair of shoes that would fit just perfectly with the dress she bought for the following weekend's musical performance.

"Hello, Kaioh-san. Color and cut?" the man asked, as if recited. Rei thought he probably had said it a million times before.

"Red, sparkly. Ruffled just above the knee." Michiru stated furrowing her brow in concentration, still scanning the wall of shoes. Rei groaned and pulled out her credit card.

The miko thought of the source of her current tumult. Tomoe. She grabbed a pillow from the couch and screamed into it. She had been looking over her shoulder all day. Which was to be expected, what with her and Hotaru's little exchange and all. When finished, she let the pillow fall to the floor as her hand lolled to her side. She sat upright. No use in fretting over it. She just needed something to take her mind off things. An idea popped into her head. Facebook; she hadn't logged on in about a week.

She got off the couch and made her way into the office, in which resided her laptop. She logged on and found she only had one notification. How popular could she really be? She clicked the link and her eyes widened in utter shock as she read the request.

_Tomoe Hotaru would like to be friends._

_Her eyes read the line a hundred times over. Multiple times, Rei rubbed her eyes just to see if she was mistaken. There was absolutely no mistaking the picture to the left of the name. Jet black hair, total Myspace angle, and a face like none other. Her eyes darted back and forth between the 'Accept Request' and 'Ignore' buttons on the screen. She figured their must have been a reason for Tomoe's sudden interest in being her 'friend', so she accepted the request. _

_Still bemused, Rei returned to her home page and browsed her friends' status updates until one from a few hours before caught her eye._

_Tomoe Hotaru had quite an interesting run-in at lunch with Chibi-chan._

_Rei wondered in vain if she was this 'run-in'. Suddenly, a little chat window opened on the bottom right corner of the screen. She couldn't believe her eyes, again. The name at the top of the box was none other than Tomoe herself and the message read: "Hey, I wanted to apologize for earlier. I shouldn't have been so rude." Rei openly gawked at the screen and tried to force herself to type, until she saw a little picture notifying her that Hotaru was typing another message. She waited and another message appeared just below the last one. "Oh, and in class. I didn't mean to correct you like that. But it is a rare occasion that one such as myself gets to correct Ms. Queen Bee, isn't it?"_

_Rei finally gained the might to reply. "It's really okay. English literature isn't really my thing. About earlier, I don't mind. I might have been the same way if someone knocked me down so rudely. Gomen, again." Rei got an idea and continued to type. "What do you say I make it up to you?"_

_Rei sent the message and waited for a sign that Hotaru was replying. After about two minutes of complete stillness on Rei's end, Hotaru's message appeared. "Sure, what did you have in mind?"_

_Rei halted. Damn. She had no idea what she had in mind. Truthfully, it was sort of an empty request. She figured the girl would give her some lame excuse about how she had homework or was busy for the next year and a half. She placed her hands on the keyboard and decided to wing it. "Well, I can buy us some lunch and you can help me with the English Literature midterm, if you don't mind. Obviously you are more versed on the subject than me."_

_The younger girl began to reply almost immediately, "That seems a bit more like me helping you, doesn't it? I wouldn't mind, but that means you owe me one. Monday at noon. I'll meet you at the library. That okay?"_

_"Sure thing. I'll be there." Rei almost typed 'It's a date!' but deleted it as soon as the words appeared on the screen._

_"Gotta go. Ja ne, Hino." Tomoe Hotaru is offline._

_Rei was still in a daze as she hit speed dial three on her cell. One was her grandfather at the shrine, two was Mina's cell, three was to contact Michi or Haruka, and four was for Ami, who Makoto could almost always be found with._

_Muffled giggles and scolding whispers were heard from the other end before Michiru spoke. "Yes, Rei?" Rei all but screamed the events of the last twenty minutes at the older girl in her excitement. The only response was, "Well, looks like you've got it under control for now. I have some--heehee--business--gasp--to attend to right now. Stop, Haruka! We can talk tomorrow, ja ne." And with that, she hung up leaving a very grossed out Rei to roll her eyes at the antics of her high school's 'most likely to get married'._

_Now Rei's only problem was what to buy for lunch on Monday. She sighed, turned off her computer, and went to her room for a well deserved nap, determined to sleep away her troubles._

_Minako scurried around the room, picking up clothes frantically. Setsuna, still lying in her bed, unclothed, laughed quietly. _

_"Honey, you won't be late," the time senshi stated. "You still have half an hour."_

_Mina hastily commenced getting re-clothed. "I know, but I still need to go back to my place and get my uniform!" At this, Setsuna wrapped the bed sheets around herself and made her way over to her closet. She removed a brand new duffel bag and handed it to her blonde girlfriend. The younger girl opened the bag and found inside a new uniform with 'Aino' printed on the back._

_"I got them for the whole team. The old ones didn't breathe well and were, quite frankly, ugly." Setsuna said, switching into her 'fashion mode'. "These are made mainly from spandex for easy movement and maximum comfort! Also, because you always look great in tight clothes." She winked and placed a chaste kiss on her girlfriend's head. "Now go change before you are late," she shooed the blonde into the bathroom._

_The love senshi got in a quick "Thank you!" before scampering off to try on her new uniform. _


End file.
